as you can read here
A few snippets to convince you of the importance of this editorial:
These are, simply, crimes. They are prohibited by federal law, which defines torture as the intentional infliction of “severe physical or mental pain or suffering.” They are also banned by the Convention Against Torture, the international treaty that the United States ratified in 1994 and that requires prosecution of any acts of torture.
No amount of legal pretzel logic can justify the behavior detailed in the report. Indeed, it is impossible to read it and conclude that no one can be held accountable. At the very least, Mr. Obama needs to authorize a full and independent criminal investigation.
But it gets better, much better ....
read this paragraph:
But any credible investigation should include former Vice President Dick Cheney; Mr. Cheney’s chief of staff, David Addington; the former C.I.A. director George Tenet; and John Yoo and Jay Bybee, the Office of Legal Counsel lawyers who drafted what became known as the torture memos. There are many more names that could be considered, including Jose Rodriguez Jr., the C.I.A. official who ordered the destruction of the videotapes; the psychologists who devised the torture regimen; and the C.I.A. employees who carried out that regimen.
While it is hard to imagine that there will be a full investigation, much less a full blown prosecution, that the nation's newspaper of record - which for the record was initially strongly supportive of the great war on terror in all of its forms - takes this position.
As a side note, someone should diary this powerful column by Paul Krugman, also in tomorrow's dead-tree edition, a column which destroys the notion that aggressive wars - except against fourth-world economies - can ever be financially rewarding, and from which I offer this quote:
The point is that there is a still-powerful political faction in America committed to the view that conquest pays, and that in general the way to be strong is to act tough and make other people afraid. One suspects, by the way, that this false notion of power was why the architects of war made torture routine — it wasn’t so much about results as about demonstrating a willingness to do whatever it takes.
Whatever it takes - right. And false machismo, largely from a batch of people, starting with Dick Cheney, who never served in the military.
I cannot end this without offering the final column from this powerful editorial statement:
Starting a criminal investigation is not about payback; it is about ensuring that this never happens again and regaining the moral credibility to rebuke torture by other governments. Because of the Senate’s report, we now know the extent to which officials in the executive branch went to rationalize, and conceal, the crimes they wanted to commit. The question is whether the nation will stand by and allow the perpetrators of torture to have perpetual immunity for their actions.